


The Trouble With Tribbles

by honeymink



Category: Ant-Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 3, F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-17
Updated: 2019-03-17
Packaged: 2019-11-23 05:51:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18147932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/honeymink/pseuds/honeymink
Summary: Hope brings back a blind passenger from a trip to the Quantum Realm.





	The Trouble With Tribbles

**Author's Note:**

  * For [semperfiona](https://archiveofourown.org/users/semperfiona/gifts).



“The collection unit should have got enough Quantum Healing particles for further experiments. Preparing for reentry in five… four… three,“ Hope announces.

Diving in and out of the Quantum Realm hasn’t quite become routine. That would be foolish. Yet Hope is not worried.

“Copy that,” she hears Betty’s calm voice on the other end of the Quantum Tunnel and Hope knows she has a tether. 

When she closes her eyes, Hope imagines Betty’s hand reaching out for her with her palm open, fingers guiding her to come closer. A slow and intimate gesture.

Breathing evenly, Hope continues the countdown, “– two, one.”

Flying through the dimensions, through air so soft, through lights so colourful at high speed while regaining her natural size always leaves her with a feeling of something hotly passionate that beats like a throbbing pulse through the tardigrade fields.

Not this time though. Something has attached itself to one of her wings and she can feel it growing as she grows in size, she tries to shake it but there’s no use.

“Hope? Hope, are you all right?” 

Next thing she knows, Betty is standing over her, looking concerned through her glasses. Hope realizes vaguely that Betty must have removed the suit's mask and headgear before turning her focus back on Betty herself. She really likes the glasses and the white lab coat. Wow, she must have been totally shaken up when she didn’t stick that landing. 

“Betty, what’s with the furry thing?” 

Hope is aware that this isn’t terribly eloquent, especially for a scientist, but she has just hit her head, mind, and is lying on her back in Betty’s lab at Culver University having exited her father’s new portable Quantum Tunnel. And there’s a furry slug the size of a cat crawling over the left wing of her suit. 

“A sort of paramecium, I suspect,” Betty replies, excited and a bit out of breath. “You know, a protozoa.”

“Oh, sure,” Hope says quickly. Maybe it rings a bell, fifth grade or whatever. Maybe she lies through her teeth, she’s a physicist not a biologist. She’s this close to making a joke about Schrödinger’s microbes. “It’s cute but let’s get it off me?”

“Oh, certainly,” Betty picks up the protozoa. “Its ciliae are really soft.”

With some effort Hope has finally got off the floor, folded in her wings and dusted off her suit. 

“Are you petting it?” she asks suspiciously, fighting a bout of jealousy to be honest – way worse than when Scott went to Germany with 'Cap'.

“Hm?” Betty finally says, trying to laugh it off. “Maybe. For a moment I really felt like it knew me.”

But Hope just shrugs, “Who knows what happens to these things down there. My mum said adaptation was part of it, but some of it is evolution.”

“Well, perhaps in the right nutrient solution and at the right humidity, I could have it multiply and…” Betty looks around. “Of course not at its present size, wouldn’t want to have a whole lab full of them like that. That would most certainly be trouble. Where is the –“

“Remote?” Hope holds up the device.

“Yes,” Betty frowns. “It really needs a better name, you know.”

“How about the BTRS wand?” Hope smirks.

Betty gives a laugh. “I presume BTRS stands for Beyond the Realm of Science.”

“Fine, perhaps we’ll let my father do the patenting and naming,” Hope concedes. “Now, get your Petri dish ready, Doctor Ross. Once we’ve atomically resized this adorable protomedium…”

“Paramecium,” Betty corrects, smiling.

“Fine, whatever,” Hope rolls her eyes a bit. “After a shower and a change of clothes, I expect for date night to proceed as planned.”

Taking a couple of steps closer, Betty leans in a bit, “Marinara at Stanley’s Pizza Parlor?” 

“Exactly,” Hope confirms and kisses Betty warmly, ever so careful not to touch the furry protozoa.

 

**~Fin~**


End file.
